Gaming machines that provide players awards in primary or base games are well known. These gaming machines generally require a player to place a wager to activate a play of the primary game. For many of these gaming machines, any award provided to a player for a wagered-on play of a primary game is based on the player obtaining a winning symbol or a winning symbol combination and on an amount of the wager (e.g., the higher the amount of the wager, the higher the award). Winning symbols or winning symbol combinations that are less likely to occur typically result in higher awards being provided when they do occur.
For such known gaming machines, an amount of a wager placed on a primary game by a player may vary. For instance, the gaming machine may enable the player to wager a minimum number of credits, such as one credit (e.g., one cent, nickel, dime, quarter, or dollar), up to a maximum quantity of credits, such as five credits. The gaming machine may enable the player to place this wager a single time or multiple times in a single play of the primary game. For instance, a gaming machine configured to operate a slot game may have one or more paylines, and the gaming machine may enable a player to place a wager on each payline for a single play of the slot game. Thus, it is known that a gaming machine, such as one configured to operate a slot game, may enable players to place wagers of substantially different amounts on each play of a primary game. For example, the amounts of the wagers may range from one credit up to 125 credits (e.g., five credits on each of twenty-five separate paylines). This is also true for other wagering games, such as video draw poker, in which players can place wagers of one or more credits on each hand, and in which multiple hands can be played simultaneously. Accordingly, it should be appreciated that different players play at substantially different wager amounts or levels and substantially different rates of play.
Bonus or secondary games are also known in gaming machines. Such secondary or bonus games usually provide an award to a player in addition to any awards provided for any plays of any primary games. Bonus games usually do not require an additional wager by the player to be activated. Bonus games are typically activated or triggered upon an occurrence of a designated triggering symbol or triggering symbol combination in the primary game. For instance, a bonus symbol occurring on the payline on the third reel of a three reel slot machine may trigger the bonus game. When a bonus game is triggered, the gaming machine generally indicates this to the player through one or more visual and/or audio output devices, such as the reels, lights, speakers, video screens, etc. Part of the enjoyment and excitement of playing certain gaming machines is the occurrence or triggering of the bonus game, even before the player knows how much the bonus award will be.
Most gaming machines provide content that is static and predictable. That is, most gaming machines operate without regard to a player's unique personal preferences, and provide the same content (such as the same primary game and bonus game content) to every player. These gaming machines are not configured to adapt to each player's unique personal preferences such that each player's gaming experience is uniquely tailored to that player.
Certain known or proposed gaming machines attempt to solve this problem by requiring a player to actively input various preferences of the player. Certain players view such proposed solutions are irritating chores because they require the players to spend time at a gaming machine selecting various preferences without actually playing the gaming machine. This reduces player enjoyment and excitement, and detracts from the player's overall gaming experience.
Accordingly, there is a continuing need to provide new ways of passively determining a player's unique preferences and using those determined preferences to modify one or more aspects of a gaming system to tailor the gaming system to the player's preferences, thereby increasing player enjoyment and excitement and enhancing the player's gaming experience.